“18 Mornings” to Premiere at the Richmond International Film Festival

ODU film student Nate Villaire on the set of "18 Mornings"

By Anna McGrath

"18 Mornings," a short film produced by David Mallin, director of the Old Dominion University Film Program, will make its premiere at the Richmond International Film Festival, premiering April 25 at 3 p.m.

Mallin, a cinematographer and documentarian in ODU's Department of Communication & Theatre Arts, workshopped the film through one of his classes. "18 Mornings" is in the Narrative and Short Films Selection category of the Richmond International Film Festival. Earlier this year, the film also won a Broadcast Education Association award.

Mallin, who previously created works such as National Endowment for the Arts-supported short film "Our Nation," is also directing a new project tangibly connected to Hampton Roads with students in his Advanced Filmmaking and Cinematography 2 classes, based on a script he wrote.

The film "Hurricane Roads" is about the hurricane that was expected to hit the area in September 2018.

"I started writing the script in November, I did nine drafts before we locked it in January," Mallin said. "Since January we have been working on the various pieces of pre-production," included casting wardrobe, prop acquisition and other steps. The bulk of the photography for "Hurricane Roads" took place from April 12-15.

The film will be shot in part with the University's newly acquired Sony Venice Camera. "It is one of Sony's nicest cameras, it literally is not even unpacked out of the shipping boxes right now," Mallin said.

David Mallin has an MFA in Cinematography from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. He focuses his work with students on the production of collaborative group and faculty-led projects run like real-world movie sets, with the belief filmmaking can only be learned experientially. Mallin turned to one of his AFI classmates, Chris Frielich, to serve as director of photography for the film. He brought knowledge of the Venice camera from working with it as the A Camera operator for BET's American Soul.

At Old Dominion University, his projects have included serving as executive producer and cinematographer for the short film "Carmelita" and serving as primary ODU project leader for the feature film "American Dreamer," directed by Derrick Borte and starring Jim Gaffigan and Robbie Jones.

Tickets for the 18 Mornings premier can be purchased at the Richmond International Film Festival website.